Forgive as you have been forgiven

By Josh Weisbrod in Uprising on 5/6/10

This Wednesday Morgan Butcher gave a great message continuing our Emergency Broadcast series. This has been a great series but I have had the luxury of taking time to reflect on this week in particular. We have been going through the sermon on the mount in Uprising and this week we got to Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy”.
Morgan broke down what it means to be a merciful person into three parts.
1) You have to be a forgiver
2) You have to have a tender heart
3) You must live a sympathetic lifestyle.

The part that really stuck out to me was the first part. You have to be a forgiver. That can seem so difficult sometimes. When President Reagen was shot he managed to share some wisdom with his daughter on how to forgive. In her book she writes. “I give endless prayers of thanks to whatever angels circled my father, because a Devastator bullet, which miraculously had not exploded, was found a quarter inch from his heart. The following day my father said he knew his physical healing was directly dependent on his ability to forgive John Hinckley. By showing me that forgiveness is the key to everything, including physical health and healing, he gave me an example of Christ-like thinking.” Now i have never been shot with anything beyond a paintball gun, but i can imagine the pain it causes. Beyond that there was an intense motive of John Hinckley to kill President Reagen. I personally have not had anyone try to kill me, not that i know of, but i can identify with this need for forgiveness in order to come to a place of healing. Being a forgiver is really hard sometimes. There isn’t always a poetic way to say that forgiving people who have harmed you can be brutal. I mean that in the way that it is uncomfortable sometimes. You feel weird as the victim forgiving the person who has wronged you.

The story of President Reagen has taught me one thing though: in our hearts we need to forgive those who have tried to harm us or else the harm they have done will destroy us. Reagen identified his healing with the fact that he had to forgive John Hinckley and for many of us that is what we need to do.In Ephesians 4:31-32 Paul says, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” I think the key there is forgive “just as Christ forgave you”. That always hits me in the chest when i read that verse while I am holding on to hurt or pain. I want to try and avoid that part of the scripture because it makes it easier to not forgive the person who has hurt me. The reality is that I constantly have to fall on my knees before God asking forgiveness. So when i take the forgiveness that God has given me and hold it up next to the pain I refuse to let go of, then all of a sudden i don’t feel so great about myself. The two don’t really match up. Jesus has payed the ultimate price with the knowledge that I will continue to mess up and continue to fail, yet he continually forgives me. His mercy is never ending. The truth is that in order to truly be healed we have to forgive. We have to get that pain out of our hearts and come to terms with it or else it will truly rob us of a good life.

Collosians 3:12-13
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

If you would like the sermon notes from Uprising this Wednesday please check out our facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/UprisingYouth

Also if you want to hear some of the worship from previous weeks check out the Uprising worship band at: http://www.facebook.com/UprisingWorshipBand

Peace,

Josh Weisbrod

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